Map 351 comes from the movie Fly Away Home (1996) starring Jeff Daniels and Anna Paquin and directed by Carroll Ballard. It is a dramatized version of the true story of Bill Lishman who trained Canadian Geese to follow his ultralight aircraft in order to help them migrate south. In the film version some land…
My family went to the Minnesota Zoo yesterday. It was 100 degrees and sunny but there was a slight breeze so it was fine. Hot, but fine. Next time you find yourself in a zoo pay attention to the maps (I always do, of course). Map 349 is actually a series of small maps from…
I haven’t been on vacation in a long damn time. Beth and I took James to California for the first two weeks of July 2018 and we haven’t gone anywhere since. Beth was pregnant in 2019 so we didn’t plan any vacations and it turned out to be an uncomfortable pregnancy so if we had…
Here is the post about the birth of our daughter, similar to the post I did for the birth of our son, James, in August of 2016. Our close family and friends will have already heard the story, of course, but this is for everyone that we haven’t yet seen. Writer’s note: I wrote most…
This trip took place from June 30th to July 15th of 2018. The Knutson family numbered three as James was joining Beth and myself on his first major vacation! Day 8; San Diego Zoo: Everybody took cold showers when we got up having survived a July San Diego night without air conditioning. A ceiling fan…
This trip took place from June 30th to July 15th of 2018. The Knutson family numbered three as James was joining Beth and myself on his first major vacation! Day 8; San Diego: I don’t remember much about the morning we left for San Diego. Presumably, I packed up our rental car (a Nissan Altima)…
This trip took place from June 30th to July 15th of 2018. The Knutson family numbered three as James was joining Beth and myself on his first major vacation! Day 7; San Francisco: I actually set an alarm to wake James up nice an early so we could try and time his nap. He didn’t…
This trip took place from June 30th to July 15th of 2018. The Knutson family numbered three as James was joining Beth and myself on his first major vacation! Day 6; Oakland: Another day, another early wake-up courtesy of our toddler, James. I let him run around in a diaper without pants because Beth’s Aunt,…
This trip took place from June 30th to July 15th of 2018. The Knutson family numbered three as James was joining Beth and myself on his first major vacation! Day 5; Bomben Family Fourth: The day started like most others with me waking up with James and getting him set up with breakfast and cartoons. That boy…
This trip took place from June 30th to July 15th of 2018. The Knutson family numbered three as James was joining Beth and myself on his first major vacation! Day 4; City by the Bay: Finally, the first day of sightseeing! I love to plan vacations full of activities and things to see. On day four we would finally be…
This trip took place from June 30th to July 15th of 2018. The Knutson family numbered three as James was joining Beth and myself on his first major vacation! Day 2; Relaxing Around Benicia: Our first full day in California was going to be a relaxing one. Beth prefers nice quiet vacations so this was…
This trip took place from June 30th to July 15th of 2018. The Knutson family numbered three as James was joining Beth and myself on his first major vacation! Day 1; MSP to SFO: The start to another big vacation at last! Months of planning in my limited free time had finally come to a…
This trip took place June 17th through June 19th, 2017. Day 1; New Hope, MN to Shamineau Lake, MN: The past few Summers my parents have rented a cabin on a lake up North. My sister’s family has gone with them typically but my wife and I usually do our own thing for vacation. Since…
Apparently it is National Plan for Vacation Day. It falls on the last Tuesday in January every year which happens to be today. Do you have your next vacation planned? Where are you going and when? What activities will you do when get there? According to Project Time Off “51% of Americans skip the one…
2017 was a fairly active travel year for me, especially considering the baby staycation of 2016. So what’s in store for me and my family in 2018? Let’s discuss the options: The Husband’s Trip (Already Rejected) – Seattle, Vancouver, & Banff I mentioned at the beginning of last year that I wanted to go…
This trip took place on May 20th and 21st, 2017. Day 1; New Hope, MN to Crosslake, MN: My cousin, Todd, was getting married. He’s only three months younger than me so we played together at all family gatherings. His fiancée, Brooke, is a teacher and they’re both big hockey fans. Their wedding was on…
This trip took place April 28th through April 30th, 2017. I drove to Kansas City with my cousin, Todd, for his bachelor party. Also in attendance were my other cousin, Dan, their father/my uncle, Mark, their cousin on the other side, Megan, and Todd’s friend, Mike. I woke up with a sore back from six hours on…
I made Map 235 using information from an article by Don’t Waste Your Money about cities where one could live comfortably on a $50,000 annual salary. It was fairly inconsequential content but it caught my attention for it’s map potential. I am always disappointed when articles like this, featuring a list of cities, do NOT…
This trip took place April 28th through April 30th, 2017. I drove to Kansas City with my cousin, Todd, for his bachelor party. Also in attendance were my other cousin, Dan, their father/my uncle, Mark, their cousin on the other side, Megan, and Todd’s friend, Mike. I woke up with a sore back from six hours on…
This trip took place April 28th through April 30th, 2017. I drove to Kansas City with my cousin, Todd, for his bachelor party. Also in attendance were my other cousin, Dan, their father/my uncle, Mark, their cousin on the other side, Megan, and Todd’s friend, Mike. Beth was nice enough to allow me to leave her and…
This trip took place from April 20th through April 23rd, 2017. James woke up quite early so Beth and I did too. She fed him breakfast while I went down to the lobby to retrieve ours. Technically I didn’t go down to the lobby. At our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express, the lobby was on the second floor […]
This trip took place from April 20th through April 23rd, 2017. James woke up quite early so Beth and I did too. She fed him breakfast while I went down to the lobby to retrieve ours. Technically I didn’t go down to the lobby. At our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express, the lobby was on the second floor […]
This trip took place from April 20th through April 23rd, 2017. James woke up quite early so Beth and I did too. She fed him breakfast while I went down to the lobby to retrieve ours. Technically I didn’t go down to the lobby. At our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express, the lobby was on the second floor…
This trip took place from April 20th through April 23rd, 2017. Day 1, New Hope, MN to Lake Delton, WI: My wife Beth occasionally works at trade shows selling memberships as part of her outside marketing job at Costco. While attending one such show she placed a $100 down-payment with a timeshare company for a three-night stay at…
This trip took place from February 17th through February 22nd, 2017. Day 6, I don’t want to go back to normal life, we’re vacation people now: The little one actually slept well overnight which means we did too. He stayed in his crib all night which meant I didn’t end up on the couch or floor for half the…
This trip took place from February 17th through February 22nd, 2017. Day 5, Toddler Time: James had another rough night. I was, once again, ousted from my side of the bed in the middle of the night. It was the only way Beth could get him to settle down for more than an hour at a…
This trip took place from February 17th through February 22nd, 2017. Day 4, Relaxing Rainy Day: James did not sleep well. He had Beth and me up quite often overnight. Beth is needed much more if he’s hungry but this particular overnight crankiness was potentially caused by teething. He doesn’t have any teeth yet…
This trip took place from February 17th through February 22nd, 2017. Day 3, Walk to the Park and Movies: Day three began much like day two. Beth and I didn’t set an alarm because James was more than willing to wake us up bright and early. He is so very cute when he first sees his…
This trip took place from February 17th through February 22nd, 2017. Day 2, Houston Zoo: We tried to sleep-in after the late night but James got us up at 7:30am. It could have been worse; Carter woke Val up around 4:30am so she was, understandably, more tired. Our morning was fairly relaxed as a…
Beth and I have been to Houston together three times previously; on a road trip through Texas and California in 2011, on another road trip to Texas in 2013, and for a quick trip to meet our nephew Carter as a one-month old in 2014. This particular trip would be just after Carter’s third birthday and we’re excited/nervous…
I normally like to have my trips fully planned long in advance but caring for our five month old has been the primary focus. It’s that same adorable infant that will likely make planning our trip to Houston next month more difficult. The five-day trip to visit Beth’s sister and her family will be our first opportunity to travel […]
The All-European Edition (for no particular reason) Immigration has been a hot topic lately for decades in the United States. It is, however, a common issue in Europe as well. Map 189 shows the most common country of origin of foreign-born populations within each country in Europe as of 2015. It does not show what percentage…
I normally like to have my trips fully planned long in advance but caring for our five month old has been the primary focus. It’s that same adorable infant that will likely make planning our trip to Houston next month more difficult. The five-day trip to visit Beth’s sister and her family will be our first opportunity to travel…
I didn’t get to take a vacation in 2016. I used my available vacation time during the first week of our son’s life in late August and didn’t leave the state of Minnesota the entire year. For a travelholic (someone addicted to travelhol) like me, it was a definitely a struggle. I lived vicariously through my…
I’ve promised a post about the birth of our son. Our close family and friends will have already heard our birth story, of course, but this is for everyone that we haven’t yet seen. Tuesday, August 9th: My lovely wife Beth started having contractions and her doctor confirmed it was, indeed, pre-labor. She was excited by…
Mixed Knuts Travel Blog 